Ottawa Metro: Clean this place up, Heron Gate residents demand

About 50 angry Heron Gate tenants and members of Ottawa ACORN rallied outside their homes yesterday to say they are fed up with garbage not being picked up, mould growing on their walls and rats running wild. But it was unclear what action might be taken or what the property manager intends to do about it.

TransGlobe Property Management Services, which owns the Heron Gate rental complex, took over direct control of managing the property just four weeks ago, after contracting it out for years, a spokesman said. “I don’t know what happened over the last several months or years in that building and the work of the last management firm that was in there,” spokesman Danny Roth said.

About 50 angry Heron Gate tenants and members of Ottawa ACORN rallied outside their homes yesterday to say they are fed up with garbage not being picked up, mould growing on their walls and rats running wild. But it was unclear what action might be taken or what the property manager intends to do about it.

TransGlobe Property Management Services, which owns the Heron Gate rental complex, took over direct control of managing the property just four weeks ago, after contracting it out for years, a spokesman said. “I don’t know what happened over the last several months or years in that building and the work of the last management firm that was in there,” spokesman Danny Roth said.

Although he would not speak to Metro about specific complaints, he said the company wants to address the problems and will listen to tenants. TransGlobe bought the Heron Gate rental community in 2007. In 2010, CBC reported that three buildings in the complex topped the city’s 2009 complaint list. Tenants said they are still facing problems with garbage pickup and water leakages that haven’t been addressed since the shift in management.

“Everywhere you look there’s rotting wood. All the windowsills are falling apart,” said Jennifer Macwaters, a Sandalwood Drive resident.

A city health inspector came to her home in April and noted mould growing on her basement walls and water that had leaked onto the floor. The innards of the walls are still exposed and the pieces of mouldy wall are sitting in her basement. “That’s a third of our house that’s unusable,” she said.

Original article available at: http://www.metronews.ca/ottawa/local/article/927099–clean-this-place-up-heron-gate-residents-demand